It's official: Scion kills FR-S convertible idea

DETROIT -- Despite a series of tantalizing concepts, Scion has officially killed the idea of an FR-S convertible.

Scion executives spearheaded a feasibility study of the idea but terminated it in June, said Doug Murtha, the brand's vice president.

"For this generation, I'm very sorry to say there is no ongoing discussion of a convertible," Murtha said. "For now, it's on ice."

Any hope for a drop-top FR-S rests on working one into a second generation.

Scion tried to salvage the project after Subaru parent Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. nixed a convertible, citing manufacturing and safety hurdles. Toyota and Fuji Heavy co-developed the car, which is sold in the U.S. by Scion as the FR-S and by Subaru as the BRZ.

Toyota stoked hope for a convertible in 2013 by showing a white drop-top variant at the Geneva auto show and a red counterpart at the Tokyo show. U.S. retailers got excited when one appeared at a dealer meeting.

"That definitely worked with those of us in North America and our dealer body who were very excited by the prospect," Murtha said. "We took the lead on that within North America. We started doing some of the engineering investigation."

Murtha said he canvassed Europe, China and other markets to gauge demand, but the numbers didn't add up.

"We could not build a business case," Murtha said. "I don't think anyone in Japan was necessarily expecting us to show it as profitable. But there was only a certain amount they were prepared to lose on it, and we weren't in that range."